Anytime A Child Is Born, The Old

All Writers Write About The Past, And I Try To Make It Come Alive So You Can See What Happened.

I Have Learned As Much About Writing About My People By Listening To Blues And Jazz And Spirituals As I Have From Reading Novels. The Understatements In The Tenor Saxophone Of Lester Young, The Crystal, Haunting, Forever Searching Sounds Of John Coltrane, And The Softness And Violence Of Count Basie's Big Band - All Have Fired My Imagination As Much As Anything In Literature.

I Have No More To Say Except This: We Must Live With Our Own Conscience.

I Knew I Wanted To Be A Writer And I Knew If I Had A Wife And Family, I Would Neglect Something, And I Was Afraid It Wouldn't Be The Writing.

I Suppose I Started Writing Seriously At 16 Years Old. I Thought I Wrote A Novel At 16 And Sent It To New York! They Sent It Back Because It Wasn't Novel.